Real money/virtual tools

Where to find the lowest gas prices. Whether to rent or buy a house. How risky your investments are.

If it's an issue that involves money, such as these, the chances are there's a tool on the Internet that will help you crunch the numbers free of charge.

Free information, of course, isn't necessarily the best information. But the world of no-cost online tools – for everything from airfare searches to paying down debts – is becoming increasingly sophisticated.

"It's empowering people more and more to do their own planning," says Chris Brockbank, an owner of Financial Calculators, an online-tool creator in Riverton, Utah. Until the rise of the Internet, he says, "You'd read it in a book, but you didn't have a medium ... to do it yourself."

That medium has arrived.

Here's a peek at a dozen such sites – some new, many tried and true. Often they come with disclaimers: They aren't a substitute for the individually tailored advice of a financial professional. And as with any tool, Web calculators are only effective when used properly.

"It all comes down to 'garbage in, garbage out,' " Mr. Brockbank says.

But don't underestimate them, either. You may already have a summer reading list. What these sites promise is a summer math list that might save you time on the financial puzzles in your life and leave you with more time for beaches, barbecues, and good books:

For many diehard users of eBay or Shopping.com, the Web is the marketplace of first resort. But even people who don't take naturally to online shopping may find price-checking sites handy.

To find some of the lowest-cost gasoline in your neighborhood, go to www.gasbuddy.com. Type in your ZIP Code, and – if your area is represented – GasBuddy gives a list of the nearby gas stations where it has found the lowest prices in the past 48 hours.

For airline tickets, surf over to www.kayak.com, which scans multiple websites for the best available prices. Type in your desired itinerary, and in 15 seconds or so, you'll see a ranking of deals available on other airline or travel websites such as Orbitz, Expedia, Delta, or JetBlue. You'll need to log in to one of those sites to actually buy the ticket. Another option, similar to Kayak, is www.sidestep.com.

Wondering what your professional skills might be worth in another city? Click on Salary.com's "Salary Wizard" (www.salary.com in the "tools and resources" section) and you'll find, for instance, that a beginning architect might make about $35,000 in Phoenix, and $39,000 in Santa Barbara, Calif. But before you move from the blazing Arizona desert to cooler Pacific shores, check out the site's "Cost-of-Living Wizard." You'll find that living costs are about 33 percent higher in Santa Barbara than they are in Phoenix.

Another inflation gauge comes from the US Labor Department, at www.bls.gov. Click on the inflation calculator under "inflation and consumer spending," and you can compare the purchasing power of a given amount of money between any two years of your choice.

It's the thing you'd rather not think about but sometimes need to know: How much will you owe in taxes this year? One place to find out is the website of tax-accounting firm H&R Block (click on "tax estimator" at www.hrblock.com/taxes/tools). The site also has tools to help you weigh what should be withheld from your paycheck or whether you'll have to pay a federal "alternative minimum tax."

The Social Security Administration offers several tools to help you forecast what your retirement benefit will be, under different scenarios. Go to www.ssa.gov/ planners/calculators.htm.

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